For a long time, Ding Yuntong had been thinking about the issue of naval war between China and Japan.

His strategy was that before the main force of the Japanese army landed in Korea, the secret fleet hiding in Xuwengang must not appear, so as not to startle the snakes.

Therefore, Weihaiwei's main fleet had to undertake two tasks at the same time, to put proper pressure on Japan, and at the same time to effectively preserve itself.

It seems very simple to save yourself, as long as you hide in the harbor and use mines and shore artillery to protect you, what can the Japanese do?

However, this has the greatest drawback, which is tantamount to giving up all sea control rights, so that the Japanese navy will not have any pressure and can freely choose its targets, attack China's coastal cities everywhere, and even blockade Shanghai, blockade the Taiwan Strait, and so on. That's the problem.

Therefore, the main fleet of Weihaiwei must not be too conservative, it should attack appropriately, and always maintain pressure on Japan, so that the main force of the Japanese fleet has no time to take care of anything else, just like getting a banana to hang in front of an elephant, you can't let you eat me, but you must let you see me, and you can't forget me.

In order to accomplish these two tasks, it is necessary to ensure several basic tactical principles: First, it must not be too far away from the base, and if it fights in the middle of the Yellow Sea, because the main fleet is obviously older and slower than the Japanese fleet, and if it is too far away from the base, it will not be able to run back if the operation is unfavorable.

Second, in operations near the base, we should rely on the cover of mine lines as much as possible, so that we can not only preserve ourselves to the greatest extent, but also put great psychological pressure on the Japanese troops.

Third, in the tactics of naval warfare, it is necessary to pay close attention to the Japanese fleet taking advantage of its speed to implement the tactics of a great detour.

Throughout the history of modern naval warfare in Japan, whether it is Ito Yuhiro in the First Sino-Japanese War or Togo Heihachiro in the Russo-Japanese War, no matter what name they adopt, their tactics are similar. This tactic has an obvious feature, that is, when the two sides approach, several Japanese warships will inexplicably turn around and run around. It is to make a large spinning detour in front of the enemy's fleet with the fastest speed and the strongest firepower, braving the enemy's artillery fire, going around to the flank, concentrating firepower to attack the opponent's side, and forming a flanking attack with the team.

The Japanese blew this tactic into the sky, and to put it bluntly, it was not worth half a penny, that is, they divided their forces into two, flanked the opponent, and broke each one. Relying on it is nothing more than running fast, and if you run into a faster warship, it is no drama.

In view of this, Ding Yuntong deliberately set an iron discipline for the main fleet: once it was discovered that the other party began to circle around, the fleet must retreat or call it to escape. If any warship fails to carry out the order, even if it sinks the enemy ship and makes a meritorious service, it will be dealt with by military law.

Since the declaration of war between China and Japan, the main fleet has strictly abided by the three major prerequisites and one discipline set by Ding Yuntong, and has always maintained navigation in China's coastal waters.

Huang Jianxun's mine battalion established three mine defense belts in the bulge of the Shandong Peninsula, northwest and northeast of Weihai Weijun Port, and east of Rongcheng Bay, all of which were far from the routes of ordinary merchant ships, and the main Chinese fleet patrolled the edges of these mine belts, as well as today.

At 8:30 a.m., the sentry on the mast reported that the enemy fleet had been found ahead, and Shen Shoukun immediately and decisively ordered the whole army to be on alert and prepare for battle. Although the time for a decisive battle has not yet come, it is still necessary to fight.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Shen Shoukun hung out the flag, and the fleet began to change its formation, from a double column to a horizontal formation, the Qinglong, the White Tiger ironclad ship, and the Beidou armored cruiser with the strongest firepower were in the center of the horizontal formation, and the rest of the cruisers accelerated their speed, catching up from behind, and lined up on both sides of it.

At about 9:30 o'clock, the Chinese and Japanese fleets began to approach, at this time the horizontal formation of the Chinese fleet had not been completely arranged, presenting a "human" shaped Yanling array, but the distance between the two sides was less than 4,000 meters, and the battle began.

At 9:33, the 239mm heavy guns on the White Tiger took the lead in firing, and the shells roared out of the barrels, and the entire battleship felt a vibration, and then in front of the Japanese fleet, a white column of water was raised.

By 9:40 a.m., all the Chinese warships had begun firing at each other, but at this time the Japanese fleet was so startled that it did not fire a single shot, and it was completely silent.

Fang Shoukun nodded and sighed secretly, the quality of the Japanese officers and soldiers is indeed good, at such a long distance, it is really difficult to guarantee the hit rate, so the Japanese simply bowed their heads and did not fight back, their perseverance can be seen.

Fang Shoukun is not unclear about this, but he has no will to fight a decisive battle at all, so it is also haode to be able to fight a few times from afar, and he will earn it in case he hits.

It is true that at 9:43, a 239mm gun on the left port side of the White Tiger roared suddenly, and the shell was incredibly accurate, directly hitting the Fusang turret at the head of the Japanese platoon 4000 meters away, the huge impact force made the Fusang tremble slightly, and the turret was lifted off more than half, and the Japanese gunners inside were all smashed to pieces, and the flesh and blood formed a layer of red mist.

Shen Shoukun on the White Tiger secretly shouted hello, turned back to staff officer Wu Yingke and said, "It's a long distance here, and it seems that my luck is good today." ”

Before the words fell, I only heard a bang, it was still the same gun, or the same target, and it actually hit again!

This time it hit the conning tower of the Fuso, although the armor of the conning tower was very thick and blocked the cannonballs, but coincidentally, a large number of shell fragments still splashed in from the observation window, and the sharp blades flying like countless lightning bolts instantly cut the Japanese ship commanders in the conning tower. All of them were cut into pieces, and there was hardly a single intact corpse, and the entire tower was a blur of flesh and blood, and the middle people were sick.

Staff officer Wu Yingke opened his mouth wide: ", sea sniper!" ”

Shen Shoukun immediately asked, "Who is this gunner?" ”

Wu Yingke thought for a while: "It seems that what is called Wang?" ”

Shen Shoukun finally remembered and said with a smile: "It was Wang Guocheng, or the emperor ordered him to transfer it, and there are really some doorways." ”

The Fuso was hit by two guns, although the hull was not seriously damaged, but the command personnel suffered heavy losses, especially the captain Isobe Baoyi was cut into pieces, and the body could not be found, so he had no choice but to slow down and retreat.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese fleet had already moved to the front of the Chinese side, when a detachment suddenly rushed out of the Japanese camp, namely Mu Pang, Tsukushi, Yamato, and Musashi. These four ships are the latest warships purchased by Japan from Britain and France, among which the Mu Pong is the latest French warship, with 4 240mm guns and 7 150mm guns, and the speed is 18.5 knots, and the firepower is fierce and fast. The other three ships are all of the same specification, with two 254mm heavy guns, and the speed is about 14.3 knots, and the speed can reach 16.5 knots under strong pressure and ventilation.

The so-called strong pressure ventilation is to use a fan to forcibly fill the coal-fired boiler with air (similar to the principle of blowing the stove fire with a blowpipe), increase the atmospheric flow and pressure in the furnace, and significantly increase the output power. However, this is an emergency measure, and maintaining a strong pressure ventilation state for a long time will aggravate the ablation loss of boiler parts and components.

These four warships, forming the "First Guerrilla Force," made a detour to the right side of the Chinese fleet at an astonishing high speed, and soon became noticeably distancing themselves from the other Japanese ships.

Almost all the commanders of the Chinese fleet discovered this, and that iron-like discipline naturally instinctively came to mind, and all the warships did not wait for the flagship to hang out the flag, and directly and uniformly issued the order to "left full rudder".

In less than a minute, the Chinese fleet as a whole turned to the left, and then all accelerated to the west.

In the first moment, the Japanese thought that the Chinese were going to adopt some kind of tactical maneuver, but after five minutes, the Japanese finally saw that they were going to run! It's like a boxing final, the opponent just threw a punch, and suddenly dropped the gloves and ran, Ito didn't know what to do for a while, should the "First Guerrilla" chase it?

However, the team reacted first and immediately launched a pursuit, and Rear Admiral Renli Jingfan had been teased by China before, and he was holding back his anger, and the cruiser Nisshin under his command was even more in the lead.

A pursuit battle unfolded on the Yellow Sea, with the Chinese fleet fleeing in an "S" shape in front and the Japanese following behind, and with the Japanese superiority in speed, the distance between the two sides began to gradually approach.

But it didn't take long to chase, 15 nautical miles east of Rongcheng Bay, there was a shocking loud bang, and the cruiser Nitshin that rushed in front finally encountered a mine, and the violent explosion directly blew the 62-meter-long hull into two, and sank to the bottom of the sea in the blink of an eye, and more than 250 officers and men, including the captain Renli Jingfan, all died in the sea.

The terrified Japanese fleet behind could only watch the Chinese leave.

That night, Ding Yuntong sent a congratulatory telegram, praising the whole army for faithfully implementing tactics, and especially commending Wang Guocheng. In the run-up to the decisive battle, small victories like these are needed to gain experience and morale.

On October 3, after a few days, the Japanese finally compromised, and the blockade had to open a gap, allowing the remaining 100,000 refugees to escape one after another.

It is not that the Japanese are merciful and compassionate, but that the hungry people are increasingly forcing their way through the blockade, and it takes a lot of bullets to kill them. It was not easy for the Japanese army to support and supply, and a large number of bullets were wasted like this, and Takashima Tonosuke was really heartbroken, so he had to let the refugees live, but let China "succeed in the treacherous scheme", and Akiyama Yoshiko was quite frustrated about this.

The arrangement of the Takashima Brigade was as follows: Ochiai Kanesa led a brigade to garrison the trench on the north side outside the east gate, Sato Masasa led a brigade to garrison the trench at the front of Mount Asaga, Takashima Tonosuke personally led a wing (including three brigades) to garrison Mount Asaga, and Akiyama Yoshiko's cavalry brigade was to wander around.

On October 4th, the east gate of Seoul was opened again, and tens of thousands of people were blasted out like a torrent, with large bags and small bags, helping the old and the young, busy with traffic, crying fathers and mothers, miserable and miserable relatives, coming to the north and east respectively.

Takashima Tonosuke scolded there: "These people are absolutely psychopathic, this kind of bad trick is addictive, and it is really eye-opening to distort like this." ＂

Yoshiko Akiyama beside him, as well as other staff officers, expressed the same feelings.

"yes, absolutely perverted. ＂

"It's twisted enough. ＂

"It's all a bunch of crazy people, mentally ill, a must. ＂

"We're fighting sadists, it's disgusting. ＂

These Japanese "imperial troops", following the spirit of bushido, have always boasted of being "murderous without blinking, ruthless, and murderous enough."

But today, when I see the Chinese so cold-blooded and shameless, I suddenly feel that my heart is particularly immature, very gentle, especially affectionate, especially kind, and especially boundless love, and purifying all sentient beings.

Takashima sighed and ordered the refugees to be allowed to do the same.

Gradually, the ranks of refugees approached the blockade line, and the Japanese soldiers in front of the trenches also made a few gaps.

Takashima, who was on the top of the mountain, discussed with Akiyama: "The food pressure of the Shina army has been greatly reduced, and this battle is a little difficult. Akiyama nodded.

At this moment, there was a sudden boom at the foot of the mountain, guns and cannons, and Takashima looked back: "It's bad, there is an army in the refugees." ＂

By this time, the Japanese defenders were in disarray.